In universities and other institutions, classes are conducted and grades are awarded to students based upon performance on tests, quizzes and the like. In addition, another factor that is often taken into account is the attendance of students to classes associated with a given academic course. Unfortunately, where class sizes are relatively large, the task of taking attendance at the beginning of a class can be burdensome. This is because it is usually a manual process that requires the attention of the professor for a period of time during a class session, thereby reducing the amount of time that a professor can teach the subject matter of the course. Also, sometimes professors can forget to take attendance, resulting in unreliable attendance data that might have to be disregarded when determining grades for students.